It’s stunning aerial photos like this one taken in 1949 that show why Los Angeles chose this site on Mt Hollywood to build the Griffith Observatory. It was constructed between 1933 and 1935 from money stipulated in Griffith J. Griffith’s 1919 will (I’m not sure why it took so long.) Ever since its dedication on May 14, 1935, it has been one of L.A.’s memorable sights that can be seen from miles around
As we can see from this January 2020 satellite image, nothing much has changed since then.
I thought the auto-colorizer did a great job of bringing this image to life.
Great vantage point because now we can clearly see where James Dean kept tossing out those tire irons. Wonder how many takes were required to complete that scene. Did they tie a fishing line to the prop to recover it each time? Or might the hillside have been littered with treasures to be found? Got metal detector?
Just look at all the available parking! It’s not like that now, although it’s worth dealing with the traffic to visit.